Progress Report - April

For the first few weeks of the year I made a concerted effort to finish some of the projects that I had already started or committed to. I did well. The most important finish was Floral Melody. I had to complete this in order to enrol for the Phase V class. I finally complete Floral Melody at the end of January but I could not afford to take a break in my stitch schedule, I wanted to complete Camellias by the end of February so that Frame One would be available for me to begin Phase VIII at my Japanese Embroidery class in March. I did the finishing and removed Camellias from the frame the weekend before the class. At that time I was in the very unusual position of having three Japanese embroidery frames with nothing on.

I tend to work on a large project, usually Japanese embroidery or bead embroidery, in the mornings and at weekends. I like to have something smaller and less time consuming for the evenings. In January I concentrated on completing all of the Round Robin Doodle Pages and sent those off. I also stitched an overdue Colour Challenge Chinese Whisper page. These were all for swaps I had signed up for on the Embroiderer’s Guild member’s forum.

I then turned my attention to an on-line class – Chinese Flower by Trish Burr and before that had ended I had signed up for another on-line class – Purple Pansy by Tanja Berlin ... and before I had finished that I signed up for Susan Elliot’s e-course, Harikuyo needle book.

By the end of March, I had not completed every WIP (work in progress) but I had dramatically reduced them. By the end of April, I had started four new projects!

Phase VIII – Queen of Flowers has gone onto Frame One and was started at my annual Japanese embroidery class in Bournemouth.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Bridge Between East and West on Frame Two has not been out of the portfolio. Frame Three travelled to Atlanta with me for Bead Class and held Phase V, Pouchette for 2 weeks. I’ve had to take it off the frame to bring it home.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I rented a frame from the Center to do the Special Project so this also has had to come off the frame for the time being.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I took a Needlework Nibble to Atlanta, thinking that I would work on it in the evenings. As it turned out, I had very little time or energy for anything in the evenings but I have made a start with it.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

At the moment I am in a bit of a quandary what to do next. I would like to work on all of the projects that I have started recently but I need to focus on one. I would most like that one to be the Pouchette but it is slightly too long for the smaller frames so needs to go on Frame One. I don’t really want to take Queen of Flowers off the frame, although it would fit onto the smaller frames. There is also another project that I would like to work on, the Gold work Master Class sampler. I have mounted the fabric for this project onto Frame Four but it is not yet started. Decisions, decisions!

Happy Stitching